AN ALLIANCE of all primary education groups has warned minister for education Ruairi Quinn to ‘keep your hands off our schools’ as the threat of more ‘supersize’ classes increases.

The newly-formed National Primary Education Alliance held a meeting for the Carlow/Kilkenny area on Monday 23 September in the Newpark Hotel, Kilkenny . The meeting welcomed parents, teachers, boards of management, school principals, religious and non-religious school bodies, indeed, all involved in primary education, to attend. The purpose of the meeting was to campaign against an increase in pupil/teacher ratios that has been hinted at by minister Quinn in advance of this year’s budget.

“One in four Carlow children are in classrooms of 30 pupils or more. We have the second largest class sizes in Europe,” argued Fran Maloney, secretary of north Carlow INTO. “We have to stop these ‘supersize’ classrooms.

“This is an alliance of all involved in primary education and it is open to the public,” Mr Maloney said.